Do you make this #1 mistake when “SELLING” the job to a candidate?

A Job Interview

“We have free lunch, employee insurance, a lot of snacks and drinks always”

“We give lots of freedom to our employees”

“You will have lots of opportunities for personal growth”

Are you a Hiring Manager who use the above “ready-to-deliver” popular answers used by a big percentage of Hiring Managers? (Let’s call the interviewer in this article as Hiring Manager whether it’s a CEO or HR Manager etc., who is responsible for making a great candidate accept a job offer). If you are using those answers, have you ended up in the following situation?

The story below is created to convey the core message of this article.

You interviewed a great candidate and emailed him/her an offer with a salary accepted by the candidate in the direct interview. The candidate didn’t respond to your offer for few days. You started calling the candidate and he is not picking up your call at all. One day, you saw on Linkedin that the candidate joined another company. That company is not big as yours. They don’t have an employee insurance, free lunch and the benefits you marketed to the candidate during the interview. Still, he/she joined the other company. You got the candidate on phone somehow and he/she replied that they got a better package in the other company.

Listen: Better package is an easy reason candidate can tell to prevent HR managers from following up on them even though they had other reasons for joining another company. Well, the story doesn’t end here.

Luckily, you knew some people in the company in which the candidate joined. You got to know that the candidate joined another company because he/she can manage a team of people and help them to grow. That opportunity stimulated the candidate. The candidate loves to do that and likes to get better at it. You started wondering. You never knew this interest of the candidate and he/she never mentioned it in the interview. You were consistently selling your position in which the candidate don’t have to manage a team. What did the Hiring Manager in the other company do to understand this interest of the candidate? The answer is simple.

The Hiring Manager asked the RIGHT QUESTIONS to understand the career needs of the candidate in depth. On the basis of that information, the hiring manager structured the “sales pitch” to the candidate.

I will give you another story to understand how your ready-to-deliveranswers may be turning down the candidate. Imagine that you used mostly – “We have a great work culture” sales pitch to sell your job to a specific candidate. What if that candidate is looking for a job change now because he joined his current company believing their story about great work culture. But, he had lots of bad experiences as the company was not doing what it was preaching. In this case, your work culture pitch will put your company in the frame of doubt in candidate’s mind and turn down the candidate.

That’s the #1 mistake – “SELLING” your job to the candidate with the “ready to deliver” popular answers without understanding the career needs in depth.

Some questions to understand the career needs of the candidate in depth:

What is really important for you in your next job?

Describe your ideal position and what makes it ideal

Is there anything you wanted to do in your previous jobs but was not able to do it because you didn’t get the opportunity?

What kind of work increases your positive energy?

Topgrading, proven to be world’s best hiring method which has tripled hiring success in the leading companies has really good questions to understand the career needs of the candidate in depth. Topgrading interview method as a whole will help you to uncover important information about the candidate starting from the college years. That information helps you to sell the job to the candidate. I strongly recommend reading Topgrading book if you are serious about hiring right people.

Remember this always when “SELLING” jobs to candidates – It’s not about your company, it’s about them.